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BOB MARLEY & THE SPORT OF SOCCER | NATURAL MYSTIC OF THE PITCH

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From the desk of Contributing Editor Eli M. Getson–

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I have always been fascinated by Bob Marley’s love of football, or as we say in America– soccer. The many images that captured his playing in formal games, or just juggling the ball, show a different side of the natty dread who would burn up the stage all over Europe in the 1970s. We see a person focused yet loose, an athlete who truly had a passion for the game, and a man totally at ease with himself. By all reports he was quite skilled with the ball, and could pass and score with equal proficiency.

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Traveling the world over the last few years, I always noticed that Bob Marley’s image (along with Che Guevara) is omnipresent whenever you’re in a country where the people are under oppression, live under a corrupt system, and struggle just to get by. Marley’s music and life story make him a natural advocate for the oppressed– and to this day, his image is a top-seller on many a t-shirt the world over.

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In one of the great ironies of life, it wasn’t until after Marley’s death in 1981 that he became a musical and pop culture icon in the United States. During his actual playing days he was a star in Europe and sold out consistently in both the UK (where the Wailers were huge due to the support of the Jamaican expat community, and from the support of people like Mike Jagger and George Harrison) and on the continent. His two live albums: “Live” recorded at the Lyceum in London in ’75 in front of a who’s-who of the London music scene, and “Babylon by Bus” were recorded in front of packed houses– if you listen to the recordings you can hear the crowd going totally nuts. This same level of adulation was not the story in America– In the late 1970s the Wailers frequently had trouble packing a venue. The radio was dominated by one format stations back then, and black radio was primarily by disco-driven. The drum and bass driven thump of Reggae tended to get passed over by parochial station managers and DJ’s. It was not until the mid 1980s when college radio began to take hold (a good five years after his passing), until the appreciation, and ultimate apotheosis, of Bob Marley in America began.

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For me I have always loved the music and actually made a pilgrimage with my family to Bob’s final resting place in Nine Mile, Jamaica in 1984. The images of Bob playing football would be respectfully interpreted by Addidas for a small capsule collection in their authentics stores a few years ago, showing that while Marley was a man of substance, he had great style as well.

15 thoughts on “BOB MARLEY & THE SPORT OF SOCCER | NATURAL MYSTIC OF THE PITCH”

Although when he first moved to London Bob Marley lived in a strictly Arsenal supporting area, Camden & played many gigs in the Rainbow theatre (Finsbury Park) for some unknown reason Bob Marley is on record as being a Tottenham Hotspurs fan. Still HM The Queen & Johnny Rotten are Arsenal Fans so the Spurs can keep Bob.

For those who don’t know about the rivalry between Arsenal & Tottenham imagine Northern Ireland or Palestine/Israel but with Football replacing religion & far more bloodshed and hatred.

Different means for different goals, yet they both affected the same group of people. Don’t become a moral advocate. Che thought what he was doing was right, doesn’t everyone?

If i could quote nietzsche, “There are no moral phenomena at all, only a moral interpretation of phenomena”

To many poor he’s a symbol of hope. people preach the path of peaceful submission and humility. Because they are trained to. Che rose beyond this because, in reality, the ones who preach that path the most are often the most hypocritical, that or they are the ones most easily manipulated. I follow this but do not preach, only because it becomes useful solely in accordance with prudence, sometimes you must disregard these notions.

He is simply another controversial figure to impact history, only because his worldwide revolution did not succeed do you think of him as you do. He had no chance in Bolivia which is his own fault, no knowledge of landscape, political situation or ethnic tensions.

What he wanted to achieve is something most would agree upon, how he wanted to do it and the way he went about making it happen got messy. He was able to win alot of hearts and minds to an ideal however, and because he was killed is now a martyr. You can thank his enemies for that, he paid the ultimate price for having an unbrakable will.

note: i am bolivian, my grandfather fought against che. I am not a communist as i think it is the wrong conception of a good idea, it is too centralized.

I believe che is probably turning in his grave at this very moment considering many use him simply for fashion and have no idea of what he was aiming for. Think of Simon Bolivar meets Lenin. That is Che.

As a Cuban-American, I would not glorify Che in any way. I am merely making the point that for whatever reason both have images that have come to personify that Tom Wolfe termed “radical chic” and are always a constant on t-shirts etc. whenever I travel, both in the developing world and in Europe. The interesting piece is that both the image of Bob and Che have made their way up to the world of runway from the t-shirt hawkers on the street. I wonder if the fashion set understands the irony of putting Che’s image on $500 USD sweaters.

quite interesting how this man sang from the perspective of the masses and is now glorified by ALL the masses, regardless of socioeconomic status.
love bob. he is one of the few jamaicans known and recognized for his talents by the rest of the world. there are OTHERS, however. keep an eye out for future stars of the third world, people!

We here in the US don’t realize how important soccer…opps football… is to the self imagine of most of the rest of the world. The only time Italians fly the national flag is when the national team, known as the azzurri because of the color of their uniforms , plays in the world cup